Dwayne Cormier Named April Scholar of the Month

Cormier is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University, studying curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on curriculum and supervision. His research interests include how culture and context influence engagement in educational settings, as well as the impact of memes on the thoughts and ideals of citizens.

A military veteran and former executive director of a nonprofit organization that changed the lives of young people through the game of golf, Cormier recognized the need to aid students of color in the education system and vowed to make an impact in the classroom through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Over the years, his experiences in and outside of the classroom have given him insight on the inequities facing students, preservice and in-service teachers, and administration in educational organizations.

Drawing on this understanding and his research on cultural/achievement gaps in PK-12, Cormier conceptualized, designed, and validated a pedagogical tool to locate opportunities for developing preservice teachers’ cultural competence in U.S. public schools. This tool allows educators to engage with sociocultural interactions implicated by race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, etc. He is currently presenting his research and findings at multiple academic conferences.

Cormier is a Bunton-Waller Fellow at Penn State and an active member of not only the Holmes Program but also the Black Graduate Students Association. He has earned two master’s degrees, which assisted in his keen focus on culture and his support for minority students in PK-12 and throughout higher education.